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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  February 26, 2014 9:00am-10:01am PST

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the civil war in syria. the nuclear talks with iran. and the man casting a long shadow over all of these issues, russia's president, vladimir putin. we'll coffer all that and much more with the secretary of state already live almost 350,000 miles in the name of american diplomacy. and good day. i'm andrea mitchell live from the state department here in washington. secretary of state john kerry joins me here in the treaty room. thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. >> a lot of cry says to cover, but first is ukraine. vladimir putin issued a drill to mobilize troops in western russia. how worried should we be about the military action into ukraine? >> well, andrea, first of all,
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let me just say that what has happened in ukraine is quite remarkable. it's a demonstration of the reper repeatidy shouthat should send message to russia. and mr. putin should listen to the ukrainians that want desire for change. that's number one. number two, the president, president putin in a telephone conversation with president obama just the other day committed to respect the territorial integrity of ukraine. and i think that's up credibly important. it would be very difficult for me to understand how russia would reconcile its position on libya, its position on syria,
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its warnings against interveng in another country and then not respect the sovereignty of ukraine and the will of the people there. so we're hoping that russia will not see this as sort of a continuation of the cold war. we don't see it that way. we do not believe this should be an east/west russia/united states. this is not "rocky iv," belief me. we see this as an opportunity for russia and the united states to strengthen ukraine, help them in this transition, and there's no reason that they can't look east and west. and be involved as a vital cog in the economy of all of us going forward, and that's what our hope is, that there's a transition government, that there are reforms put in place, that the imf becomes involved and that the ukrainian people have an opportunity to decide
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their future after they form a new government. >> the russian foreign ministry only today said that the opposition and the rebellion in ukraine are extremists. they are really dialing up the rhetoric in the last 24 hours. >> well, it's been some hard statements. i think that -- no, i think to some degree, russia has not been in touch with some of what's been happening on the ground here. i think there were some encouragements by some people for yanukovych, president yanukovych, former president yanukovych to take a very harsh position here. and i think the people made their wishes and their aspirations as clear as you can make it. 75-plus people killed in the streets. a remarkable day or several days of extraordinary violence. which their courage is now being
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rewarded. and i think russia needs to be very careful in the judgments that it makes going forward here. we are not looking for confrontation. but we are making it clear that every country should respect the territorial integrity here, the sovereignty of ukraine. russia said it will do that, and we think it is important russia keeps its word. >> do we know where yanukovych is? >> well, i'm not going to speculate on the whereabouts of yanukovych. >> should he be prosecuted for war crimes? >> i'm not going to speculate on any of the accountability components. generically, we believe that anybody who made a decision or anybody who created these several days of government violence against their own people aught to be held accountable. but the first thing that has to happen is to establish a new government. the people have spoken through their elected representatives. this is active politics at the
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grassroots that has sprung up in their legislate sure. they have voted according to their process, incidentally. they have followed their procedures. they have the requisite number of votes. people who previously supported yanukovych changed their positions, pulled their support away from him and voted to impeach him. so, i mean, this has been a democratic process that has been felt in profound ways, and now i think it's important for everybody to respect it and let the people of ukraine find their government, create a reform process, have elections and begin to get their economy moving. and that's perhaps the most important thing here. russia does not need or want a ukraine that is unstable and more violent going forward. and economically a basketcase. it's in everybody's interest to
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help to try to put this together to have a democratic ukraine. >> but putin seems to think that we are meddling. is the united states meddling? you know, that was overheard in conversations. >> no, the united states has been engaged with a country and with its people in the way that we are around the world engaged, like any country. it's no different, you know, russia's engaged with assad in syria. russia's engaged in various places around the world. you know, through its diplomacy, trying to meet its interests. we are engaged and have been endangered with ukraine for a long period of time as they have expressed their will to try to sign up for the association agreement with europe and the eastern partnership. that's what they wanted to do. russia then came in and engaged with a $15 billion program and different things. i mean, you know, i don't think
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we need to sort of go back and forth about who is pushing what set of opportunities for the people of ukraine. the key here is to give the people of ukraine the full space within which to make their decisions about where they want to go. that's what we're trying to do. we're not putting pressure on them. we're not urging something that they haven't themselves expressed as a desire. we are trying to honor their intentions of putting together a democratic pluralistic government that break ace way from this kleptocracy that existed there. and now we are getting the insights of yanukovych with his yachts and everything else. so this is what the people are rebelling against. there's no defense of what was there. what we need now is not to get
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into an old cold war confrontation. we need to work together in what does not have to be a zero sudden game to provide the capacity of the people of ukraine to choose their future. that's all that's at stake. >> i want to ask you about syria. for three years we have watched horrific pictures. you spoke of this when you were senator, obviously now you've got the lead role on it, horrible pictures. i looked at video of a child weeping over his mother's body after a barrel bomb was dropped on her and other civilians by the regime. just today this picture on the wire is from the refugee camp in damascus. why isn't this genocide? >> well, andrea, that gets into all kinds of definitions. what it is is wholesale killing of your own people.
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>> but it's killing of one or another ethnic group by a minority leadership? >> i don't want to get into definitions. what he is doing is outrageous, unconscionable, unacceptable, disgraceful, craven, it's horrendous. and we all know that. everybody knows that. and president obama has been deeply committed to try to make a difference in ways that we have chosen within the law that we believe are appropriate and permissible. we are giving aid, we are helping in many different ways, we are the largest donor to the humanitarian crisis. we have been leading the effort to help put together a political process that might help to make a political resolution possible. where everybody agrees there is no military solution. so the only solution is a political one. and we've led the effort to try to help move down that road. >> mr. secretary, not everyone agrees there shouldn't be some military options. your former colleague, john mccain, has been scathing in
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this criticism that air strikes are an option. and, in fact, back on august 30th, you said to the american people in a speech that was widely described and praised as being cherchilian. you said, if we choose to live in a world where a thug and a murderer -- leaders have been warned against inaction and especially against silence when it mattered most. now, that was a call to war. and then the president made a different decision to consult congress, we know how that evolved he did agree on military action. i know the history here, but without relitigating that, what about the inaction on air strikes, on other things that would have taken out the air power of syria? stopped these bombings by helicopter, by the -- by fixed planes of the civilian
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populations? >> well, andrea, as you know better than anybody, because you've been doing this a long time, there are limits on the ability of any nation to just spontaneously go out and use force whenever it wants. there are laws you have to follow and there's a process. the fact is that unless the nation that you're considering invites you in, unless you're doing it as a matter of self-defense or unless you have a u.n. resolution, there are greater limits than what you're able to do. the president has taken no option off the table. none. and the president has charged me and the rest of the administration on his security team to analyze every single available option on an ongoing basis, not something new. he's constantly reviewing this. he is constantly making judgments about what options may or may not be available. and i can tell you that none of us are satisfied, not the president, not me, no one in this administration is satisfied
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with where we are today. we believe we need to do more. now, the president did make a decision to use military force. and he made that decision clear to the world. he then did what was also appropriate, which was ask the congress of the united states to approve it. and obviously everybody understands that that was very, very difficult. and before that decision had to be voted on, we came up with an alternative of getting the chemical weapons out. now we are continuing to put additional pressure on. and i will be -- i am constantly talking with our allies in this effort. we are going to be meeting and discussing this in the course of next week. we in the course of two meetings on libya and lebanon. >> but russia has blocked -- they finally let the first resolution be passed last week. there's no enforcement of it so there's review after 30 days.
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russia is again, not really a partner here in helping to lessen assad's power. the president said years ago assad must go, he's still there. doesn't that undermine american authority and the incredible threat of military force? >> i think it's a challenge to all of us to figure out how we are going to get more pressure on assad and on others. frankly, russia is increasing its assistance to assad. i do not find that constructive in the effort to try to get him to change his mind and be able to come to a decision that he needs to negotiate in good faith. so we need, that's one of the reasons why the president is pushing all of us, to look at additional options. the one thing i assure you, andrea, no one is comfortable with where it is today. we all understand that this is a huge humanitarian crisis. it is putting pressure on jordan, pressure on lebanon. there are increasing threats from transfers from assad to hezbollah and therefore threats
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to israel. there are challenges to turkey. and all of those countries are engaged in the discussion with us about what steps should be next. and i can guarantee you that every energy and effort of our administration is going into this discussion right now. and the president has taken no option off the table. >> let me ask you about north korea because the u.n. has exposed for all to see the horrors of those death camps, the prison camps in north korea, the human rights wing of the u.n. is taking it up in geneva. a former prison guard testified that he witnessed dogs attacking five children. two of the children survived the attacks by the dog and were buried alive. how -- how much longer can this go on with china protecting its client, north korea, and the u.n. not recommending that the
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leaders of north korea be taken to the world court? and prosecuted if they could possibly be captured? >> well, i think that -- i think that every aspect of that report is a huge human -- is a huge service to all of us. and i applaud the report. north korea is one of the most closed and cruel places on earth. there's no question about it. there's evil that is taking place there that all of us aught to be deeply and are deeply concerned about. i just came back from china. the president september me there specifically to raise the question of north korea, of the imperative of our dealing with all of these challenges within north korea, particularly the nuclear program. we had very serious discussions
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there about the options available to us. and we are continuing to press for action. but in the meantime, there is no question that the level of depravity, the level of human rights violations, they have conducted executions, using 122-millimeter aircraft guns to obliterate people and force people to watch these kinds of executions. this is an evil, evil place. and it requires enormous focus by the world in order to hold it accountable. and i think every aspect of any law that can be applied should be applied. >> we have many more questions for you, including of course the important israeli/palestinian talks. we'll be right back. coming up more with secretary of state john kerry live from the state department. state with us here on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.
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and welcome back to the state department and secretary of state, john kerry. venezue venezuela, these protests have been spreading, it started as a student protest and now it's a lot more, but they are suggesting after four years they want to consider an exchange of ambassadors. is there a diplomatic option for us here? is he beginning to worry, perhapsers about his own rip on power? >> i don't know the answer to whether he's worried or not, but i tell you we have made several outreaches. i met with the foreign minister of venezuela down at the meeting. i have called and had telephone conversation in which we had both meetings, we've emphasized that we're looking to improve the relationship, we would like to see a change. regrettably, the president, president meduro, keeps choosing to blame the united states for
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things we are not doing or for things that they are unhappy about in their own economy and in their own society. we're prepared to have a change in this relationship, this tension between our countries has gone on for too long in our view. but we are not going to sit around and be blamed for things we have never done and see our diplomats declared person that in and sent out of the country for things they didn't do. so we're happy to have a discussion. we would like to move forward in the relationship. and hopefully venezuela will begin to deal with its own internal problems and position itself so that we can engage thoughtfully. >> israel's prime minister netanyahu is coming and will be meeting with the president next week. some of the hard-liners have reacted very personally and viciously against you, accusing you of being anti-semitic in one
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case because of your but suit of the israeli/palestinian peace talks. your reaction? >> you know, it's a very -- complicated, very difficult issue for a lot of people. it's so emotional, so deep historically and culturally that i do not get agitated, i just don't let those things get in the way. i believe and president obama believes that israel and the region and the palestinians will all be served by having peace. and what we're trying to do is move the process forward, not impose on anybody something, but move the process forward in a way that respects the needs of everybody. israel has fundamental security needs. we honor that. our security bond, our bond,
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period, with israel is ironclad. it's not going to be changed. and we will meet our obligations and our commitments to israel with respect to its security, even as we try to nudge this process forward to end what has been too many years of conflict. and the other side of the coin, andrea, is there's this enormous set of possibilities for the economy, for what relationships could be established through the recognition that would come with peace from 57 muslim countries, 22 arab countries, 35 muslim countries, it's all in the waiting, it's all out there. and we're going to continue to press forward north withstanding these occasional comments from one to the other which i don't like in the process. >> one reason the prime minister is very concerned about you and your policy and the president's
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policy the s the iran negotiations. iran has right now lived up to every one of its commitments in terms of not installing more centrifuges, not reactivating the construction, not enriching beyond a certain level, so so far so good, but the next part is really the hard tip. and are you prepared to accept a deal that lets them continue enriching beyond a certain level and reinstall those advanced centrifuges and continue instruction and keep their missiles? >> let me just say i'm obviously not going to negotiate on a television program, even yours. and i appreciate it. >> it's always open to you. >> but we're not going to -- president obama is not going to enter into a bad deal. he didn't do that in this first
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step and he's not going to do it in a final step. the president is committed as he said from the beginning, his policy is iran will not have a nuclear weapon. and it's important for us in this negotiation to keep the rhetoric and the tone of this in a place where we could actually try to have the best opportunity to get to a final deal. it's going to be tough. we know this. we have no illusions about this. and we are approaching it with an attitude of looking for maximum accountability, maximum transparency, maximum verification so that the world can know that if there is a final agreement, they are assured that iran is on a peaceful track. that's what we're looking for. we believe there's a way to get there, but none of us would say to you today we know we will get there. it's very difficult negotiation.
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>> uganda, you have an anti-homosexual law uganda. and now arizona is looking into whether it will allow gays and lesbians into restaurants. doesn't this show other countries how we feel about homosexuality in our states? >> i am counting on our governor. i cannot imagine how the law would withstand the scrutiny of the supreme court of the united states. so i would hope that she'll make the right decision. and until then, it doesn't -- we have been through own struggle, everybody knows that. this is not an easy path for the united states. but what's important is we are
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on the path, we have stayed steady, we have made enormous progress in the united states and we will stand up for people's rights anywhere in the world because that's who we are in the united states of america. i think this law in uganda, the notion for somebody being gay would be thrown into jail for 14 years or otherwise punished in other ways is disgraceful. we have spoken out about it. it's contrary to fundamental basic human rights. it's also contrary to science. it's contrary to fact. it's contrary to everything that we believe is representative of a growing understanding in the world about the rights of our fellow human beings. and so we will fight against it. now, i was not aware until recently, very recently, that there are 80 countries that have laws on their books of one kind or another that outlaw homosexuality. and it's just -- this is going
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to be now a fight that's going to be taken from places where great progress has been made to the world. and i think we're going to see increasing discussion, increasing change and ultimately i believe people's rights will be honored in the way that they should be. it will take a while longer, but this is a fight worth fighting. >> speaking of science, last week you called climate change perhaps the most fearsome weapon of mass destruction. you've been a lifelong environmentalist committed to climate change. i've seen and heard you over the years. now you have a big decision to make. there's a report on your desk, i don't know when you have time to read anything with all your travel, but the report does give you a pass on this if you choose to take it by saying that climate change would not be affected one way or the other. and, in fact, there were arguments by some environmentalists that there would be a worse impact if rail or trucks were used for the same natural gas that would be
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fracced in canada. so how do you approach this decision in social media, a friend of the show on facebook today asked, what are you going to do? what can you tell your allies in the environmental movement? >> well, first of all, let me correct one thing. what i said about climate change is it's one of the -- one of the two or three top weapons or instruments of mass destruction, which it is. it's having a profound impact on a global basis and will continue to. obviously, we have others that are also enormous concern. but climate change, you know, global warming, whatever anybody is preferenced to call it is increasingly a national security threat. it's increasingly going to provide major challenges to food security, to water security, to refugee populations, which it's
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going to create through the stability and instability of countries, to economies. this is growing in its urgency for us to respond to it. and so i will continue down that path with respect to the keystone, i'm prohibited under the process to discuss it publicly. and i'm not going to. i'm engaged in a very private, personal process within the department to look at the facts. and i'll make my judgment based on the facts to make a recommendation to the president about the national interest. and i'm not going to make any hints or any indicators of what that might be at any point in time. i'm just going to do my job and do the due diligence. and when the time is right, i'll make that report. >> speaking of social media, i wanted to hear how you finally got the state department to let you get back on twitter. you've been making up for lost time, it seems. just to review some of the things you've been doing, you've
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been tweeting about the olympics, joking about no longer having dark hair to seth myers, you talked about the beatles, your picture with john lennon and you started your own #jktweetsagain. you do need to do a little work on your selfies. we saw the one in jakarta at the climate conference with all those kids. yeah, that was a great selfie, but are you happy to be back on twit her? >> yes. my staff was extremely nervous, but that's all right. >> let john kerry be john kerry, #jktweetsagain. hillary clinton making a decision whether she'll run, whether she won't run, how much do you think benghazi and admitted state department failures of security, which were articulated in the state department's own report, how
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much will that be an issue or not be an issue? >> one of the great virtues of hillary would be sitting here and say the same thing, one of the great virtues of this job is i will not get engaged in presidential and domestic politics. >> do you miss politics at all? >> i beg your part season. >> do you mispolitics at all? >> i miss the years of senator and i miss a lot of aspects of it, yeah, i do, but this is a spectacular job. and i love doing what i'm doing. and i love the fact that for a concentrated period of time, even though i missed some of the other aspects, not all of them, mind you, i am able to focus on a specific task, a specific set of issues. and that is a luxury, believe me, to not have to go to a fund-raiser and not have to ask people for money, to not have to engage in some of the day-to-day
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things is really a blessing. and i love the ability to be able to focus on the issues as intensely as i am right now. >> and in terms of social media, we did open up for questions on facebook for friends of the show. and gail hoffman said, she's concerned about your wife, teresa, can you share with our viewers how she's doing? >> that's very sweet. she is doing her due diligence to get better. she's working hard, she's up in boston right now. i was with her on the weekend. and she's working very, very hard to come back fully from a very tough seizure that she had. and part of the worst of it is just the medicine itself, kind of flattens you a little bit, but she's fighting. >> well, she is a fighter. we know her and love her and wish her our very best. and you, mr. secretary, safe travels. come home more often. and thanks to you for your
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hospitality and to the entire staff here at the state department for letting us do our broadcast here today. >> it's been fun, thanks. >> thank you. and we'll be right back live from the state department. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪
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this to become a giant problem between us. it's already a big enough problem. let's not make it worse. and you saw a little deploy macy on russia's part today with an order or suggestion to at least test the readiness of troops who could potentially be sent -- these are things that the united states really, really, really does not want to happen. >> and he also suggested russia is arming assad, at the same time, we were just coming through the u.n. process with a new resolution to try to get humanitarian aid to all the enclaves, yet a warning to assad to rather russia not to keep backing assad. >> right, he made a little news there by stating the obvious. it's not helpful for the partner that he likes to call russia in the diplomatic side of avending
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efforts or to end efforts in syria. to also be prolonging that conflict by rearming assad and as secretary kerry suggested, increasing the level at which it rearms assad. and there's an implicit challenge there to whose side are you on to russia, but he made it fairly plain in ways that neither he nor u.s. officials have been wanting to do lately. >> and when we look at the situation in syria, all of the negotiations which have really produced no outcome so far, and the fact that you've been on the road with secretary kerry, i've traveled with secretary kerry, he keeps trying to find those moderate rebel leaders, but the rebels themselves are fighting amongst themselves there, there are a growing number of those aligned with al qaeda and are considered a threat to the homeland according to our own director of national intelligence. so where do they go when they say that all options are on the table? it doesn't seem to be a credible
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military threat from this president who is notably risk averse, does not want to get involved militarily? >> right, there's a difference between saying all options are there eticly on the table and indeed they are. the american president can do any number of things quite quickly and on his own authority, so technically that's true. it was true in august when secretary gave that speech, as you pointed out to him, and it is technically true now. but even before august and definitely since then, the realistic window for what the united states could do semi-militarily arming the rebels and so forth, has gotten even narrower. it wasn't great and wide open to begin with, but it's gotten smaller. we don't know who they are, we can't find them and don't know who to talk to. as the geneva process and the
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breakdown of talks there showed, the assad regime isn't willing to talk to the opposition figures who are willing to come forward and try to negotiate. >> and anne, when he looks around the world, all he sees is an angry allie in israel criticizing every one of his moves, ongoing talks with iran, but the president himself said it's a 50/50 proposition. so a really tough landscape out there. >> yeah, which doesn't seem to be slowing him down a bit, does it? he's off and running. and he's got racked up more miles and done more, attempted diplomacy, anyway n the first year of office than any secretary of state in recent time. and he really is taking on a number of the big challenges all at once. >> and anne gearon, safe travels
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on hamid karzai and unless the next elected leader reverses course, all american troops will be withdrawn by the end of the year. angus king serves on the armed services committee and is joining me from capitol hill. senator, thank you very much for joining us today. as you know from our own jim miklaszewski and interviews with martin dempsey, the joint chiefs chairman and what the president has said to karzai, we are not going to wait for anything further from him, we have given up on him. so what happens if we end up withdrawing all troops from afghanistan? >> it could be a problem. i mean, in terms of just the security in afghanistan, the troops there, their forces have improved a great deal. they are miles ahead of where they were just a few years ago, but are they going to be able to resist a kind of hit-and-run guerilla war by the taliban. and the other issue is counter
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terrorism and what our basis is there. this is a real problem and the president is doing a real thing by calling karzai's bluff. he left the door open, though, there's a presidential election coming up in a couple months, and the new president might be ready to sign this thing. the irony is they had this convention of the whole leadership of the whole country, and they said yes to the whole deal. and now karzai, i don't think anybody knows what game he's playing. i don't know about you, but i would have liked to have listened in on that conversation yesterday between the president and karzai, but i understand the president laid it on the line. >> well, for sure i would have liked to listen in because he has to be completely fed up with karzai. and now there's a risk that the taliban are going to reverse all of the progress, all of the thousands of lives and billions of dollars, america's longest war. and how do we justify this kind
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of a withdrawal even though it is what the american people want? >> well, that's the hard part. and i think in the end there will be some kind of agreement because i think whoever the new leadership is, and there's no way to predict, i think they've gotten a dozen or so candidates, but i think there's a consensus among the leadership, except for karzai, that some kind of an agreement to at least maintain the training forces and some presence that continues and allows us to assist them with counter terrorism and just basic security, i think they will realize it's in their own interest. i don't know what game karzai is playing, whether he's looking for some additional incentives or what it is or maybe he just wants to disassociate himself, but assuming there's a true tra transferral of power, i don't think it's going to be an issue for sure. >> and the women have fought so
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hard in this administration and in the bush administration, so there's a lot to be pursued. i know you will stay on the issue. thank you for joining us today, senator. and we'll be right back. live from the state department, stay with us, you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.
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and that does it for this very special edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we have been live from the state department. tomorrow on the show, we have a medal of honor recipient, oklahoma senator tom coburn, and gun control activist sarah brady. the portrait of thomas jefferson here on the wall, this has been a real privilege for me and all of us on msnbc. we want to thank you for that. and turn to my colleague, ronan farrow now with a look at what's on "ronan farrow daily."
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>> hello, andrea. that was an incredible interview, very moving stories. we'll be coming back to some of the sound bytes of that interview. thank you for that introduction. we'll be talking today about a lot of other news, chris christie defended his handselling of hurricane sandy at a town hall this morning. we'll have a new jersey political insider's take. and we'll take you all the way to afghanistan where our troops are reacting to today's news about their fate in the country and on the two-year anniversary of trayvon martin's death, we'll dive deep into the community in the heart of his story. stay with us. i'm meteorologist bill karins. across the country, the cold is the big story, but we also have a rainstorm headed into california, which is great for the drought. we're also watching light snow head through the midatlantic today.
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from d.c. to philadelphia, a coating of light snow is possible, but the cold is the dominant story this week. look at minneapolis and chicago today, bitterly cold for this time of year. a hotel policy that allows you to eat all that you can. the hotel gym is short for gymnasium. the hotel pool is usually filled with water. and the best dot com for booking hotels, is hotels.com. it's on the internet, but you probably knew that. or maybe not, i don't really know you. bellman: welcome back, captain obvious. captain obvious: yes i am. all those words are spelled correctly.
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hello and welcome to "ronan farrow daily." it is not related to carson daily. chris christie stepped out at a town hall this morning. we'll have a political insider's take. and we'll take you to
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afghanistan where our troops are reacting to the news about their fate in the country. and on the two-year anniversary of trayvon martin's death, we'll bring you into the community at the heart of his story. plus, we have your responses to our call to action and a potential solution. but first, it's time for our headlines. >> well, all of us, are paying today for the sins of the past. >> half of new jersey residents believe chris christie was involved in the bridge gate scandal. >> this has truly been an era of fiscal restraint. >> the other half know how to keep their fricking mouth shut. >> the u.s. military is now prepping for a full withdrawal. >> now may be the best time for the u.s. to pick up and get out. >> i don't consider it in any way a defeat. it hurts today like it did 729 days ago. >> today marks two years ago since his 17-year-old son was shot and killed in